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The days of integrated, hybrid cloud-local storage are upon us. This week, cloud storage start-up company Egnyte announced its latest enterprise storage and sharing solution integrates with Google Drive.

With this newest release, the Mountain View, Calif.-based company offers one view and anywhere-access for users of their files, whether they're on Google Drive, stored on their computers, or stored locally on their company networks.

Additionally, the new Egnyte release provides IT with control over the files, central management to access permissions, and auditing of all file, folder and login activity in real time.

Still Need Local Storage

Even with the availability of cloud storage, the company said, research shows that about 60 percent of enterprise files will always need to be stored locally. "Our unique hybrid approach provides a unified namespace for all these files, no matter where they reside," said Egnyte CEO Vineet Jain, in a statement.

He added that his company's new integration with Google Drive "makes enterprise users even more productive by providing a single, simple view into all files they have access to, no matter where those files are located: on-premise, in the cloud, or in Google Drive."

In the new release, Google Drive and Microsoft Office files can be stored side-by-side inside their Egnyte folders to create one namespace across various devices, and a Storage Sync feature allows users to access these files through NAS and SAN enterprise storage, including on-premise storage from Enzyte or devices from such vendors as EMC, NetApp or Netgear. Additionally, Google Drive files can be shared through secure links, without the recipient having to utilize a Google account.

Google an Investor

Egnyte's new release points to the continuation of local enterprise storage even as others, such as Google and online storage service Dropbox, are promoting the idea that storage can better live in the cloud. Google's Chromebook computers, for instance, feature all apps and all data stored in the cloud. On the other hand, as Jain told news media, "the cloud is not enough."

Interestingly, Google is an investor in Egnyte, whose offices are near the technology giant's headquarters in Mountain View.

The release follows the announcement last week by online storage service Dropbox of new APIs that enabled what the company called "the spiritual successor to the hard drive." The APIs are intended to provide for cross-platform and cross-app saving and synchronization, so that, in the words of CEO Drew Houston, "today is the first day of your life where you don't have to worry" about where files are stored or how they may be synced across devices.

Laura DiDio, an analyst with industry research firm Information Technology Intelligence Consulting, said that "we've seen unified communications, and now we're seeing unified storage." She said that users and IT administrators need to be convinced that unified-view, local-plus-cloud storage is "not expensive and complex or disruptive," and as long as it's easy to use and synced, it could become much more common in the enterprise.